The invention relates to a stand for holding an animal in place on a grooming table during grooming.
A conventional grooming stand such as that shown in FIG. 1 is known wherein an L-shaped rod 1 is mounted on a grooming table 3 via a clamp 5 so that the short portion 7 of the L-shaped rod extends horizontally over the table. The distance of the short portion from the top surface of the grooming table can be adjusted by moving the long portion 9 of the L-shaped rod through the clamp. The clamp is secured to the table by a thumbscrew 5A and the long portion 9 is secured thereto by a thumbscrew 5B.
In the conventional stand of FIG. 1 the short portion 7 is provided with an eye-hook 11, and a collar 13 is suspended from the eye-hook by a strap 15 connected therebetween. By adjustment of the height of the stand and the size of the collar, animals of different sizes may easily be accommodated.
This conventional apparatus has a disadvantage, however, that a large degree of movement of the animal is allowed even when the apparatus is in use. Depending upon the length of the strap, a significant amount of side-to-side and front-to-back movement of the animal is possible. Also, the animal is free to rotate about the axis of the strap and to pivot its head from side to side. Movement of the animal is clearly undesirable during grooming and may present a danger if the animal has a tendency to bite.
Restraints are known in the prior art which prevent nearly all movement of a animal on a table. Examples of such prior art devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,804,845 to Plumley et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,341 to La Croix. However, these devices are complicated, expensive, and either cannot or do not easily adjust to different animal sizes. Moreover, these prior art devices contact the animal in several places and over a large area so that complete grooming of the animal is made difficult or impossible.